The present invention relates to a filler ring, made of rubber or synthetic material, for a vehicle wheel and pneumatic tire assembly where the beads of the fire are mounted on the radially inner periphery of a wheel rim next to essentially radially inwardly extending rim flanges. The filler ring covers a space located axially inwardly of a rim flange.
A filler ring of this general type is disclosed, for example, in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 33 12 482 Huinink et al dated Oct. 11, 1984 and German Offenlegungsschrift No. 33 31 870 Mauk et al dated Mar. 21, 1985. These known filler rings primarily serve to completely, in a watertight manner, fill the installation space axially inwardly of the tire beads in such a way that no dirty water and spray can enter this space, because otherwise this water would be prevented by the tire beads from subsequently flowing to the sides and out. For manufacturing reasons, efforts have been made to produce the filler rings from one piece, for example by extruding endless profiled members and subsequently cutting them to length. In so doing, up to now one had to accept the fact that such rings caused considerable difficulties during assembly.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to optimize the heretofore known filling rings in such a way that it is easy to install them in a vehicle wheel and tire assembly.